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Wind
Where the wind blows
Wind power only makes economic sense on sites that have strong and sustained winds. Utility-scale wind turbines typically don't even start turning until wind speeds reach 12 to 15 miles per hour, and they reach rated output at about 30 mph.
However, winds are very site-dependent. On a macro scale, some regions, such as the southeastern United States, have very few prospects for cost-effectively deploying wind generation. Other areas of the U.S. have some of the best wind resources in the world interspersed with areas that get hardly any wind. And even on a micro scale, although one site may have great winds, because of topographical characteristics, another site just a quarter mile away may have marginal winds.
These characteristics feed the
notion that there just isn't that much available resource to develop cost-effectively
or that all the best wind sites are already being developed. Although
it is true that some areas, such as the Great Plains states, do have better
winds than other areas, an analysis conducted by the National
Wind Technology Laboratory
Center
found sites with enough wind to justify wind turbines in 45 of the 50
states. Another estimate puts about 700 to 750 gigawatts of nameplate
wind capacity within five miles of existing 115- to 230-kilovolt transmission
lines.
Wind location and assessment resources:
Renewable Energy Atlas of the West contains high-resolution maps of the wind, solar, geothermal and biomass resources in 11 western states as well as transmission, policy, land-use, and existing facility map overlays.
Assessing the Potential for Renewable Energy on Federal Lands, a United States Bureau of Land Managment report identifies and evaluates renewable energy resources on federal lands and the limitations to accessing them.
Assessing Wind Resources: A Guide for Landowners, Project Developers and Power Suppliers, a briefing paper by the Union of Concerned Scientists details the process of wind resource evaluation and qualification. Although specific examples focus on Minnesota and the Midwest, the principles are applicable to other areas.
The Wind Energy Resource Atlas from the United States Pacific Northwest Laboratory includes both maps and text descriptions of national and regional wind resources.
TrueWind Solutions provides state wind resource maps.
Siting
The primary components of wind turbines arrive at an installation site ready to assemble, so once the permitting is complete, construction of even large farms can be accomplished within six months. These generation resources can begin delivering electricity more quickly than their conventional-generation counterparts to meet near-term supply requirements.
The first criterion in siting a wind turbine is locating the most economically developable wind resource. Long-term data collection makes it possible to site plants that maximize electricity production and improve an installation's economics. To meet the growing need for precise wind data, private companies are offering wind resource mapping and daily wind forecasts modeled from regional weather reports and plant-specific characteristics such as local topography. The American Wind Energy Association provides a Directory of Consultants who provide wind resource assessment services.
Wind generation sites are often far from population centers and are emissions-free, so more often than not, they enjoy a somewhat shorter siting and permitting review process. However, for a number of wind projects, other site-related issues—notably the visual impacts of the turbines and potential impacts on bird populations—can complicate the siting process.
Experience to date shows that very rural settings, not surprisingly, have fewer siting conflicts than proposed developments closer to more settled areas. Unlike siting traditional (fossil-fired) power plants, using land for wind turbines is compatible with farming or ranching.
The popular press,
the general public, and many in the energy industry mistakenly believe
that most wind generation sites kill a large number of birds, including
endangered raptors—an issue referred to as "avian mortality."
In fact, the impact of wind turbines on protected bird populations has
been very limited at every site in the U.S. except the Altamont Pass development
in California. For more information and research conducted on avian mortality,
see the NWTC's Avian
Issues site or the National Wind Coordinating Committee's avian
research publications.
The National Wind Coordinating Committee's Siting Issues for Wind Power Plants outlines the basics of wind plant siting.
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